Teaching english grammar what to teach and how to teach it

Of course, if you are not personally familiar with the meaning of an idiomatic use, then it’s sensible to avoid it - but, if you do know it, I encourage you to think about using real sen

10 Much, many, a lot of, lots of, plenty of, a great deal of 57

16 Comparisons: as as, not as as, the same as, like 76

28 Present progressive: affirmative (‘now’ meaning) 118

30 Present progressive contrasted with present simple 127

2

51 Requests, orders, offers, permission: can, could, will, would, may, might 211

52 Ability: can, can’t, could, couldn’t, be able to 215

53 Obligation and compulsion: must, have to, should, ought 218

54 Possibility and certainty: may, might, could, must, must have, can’t,

About the series

M a cm illa n B ook s for T each ers

Welcome to Macmillan Books for Teachers T he titles are written by

acknowledged and innovative leaders in each field to help you develop your teaching repertoire, practical skill and theoretical knowledge

Suited to both newer and to more experienced teachers, the series combines the best of classic teaching methodology with recent, cutting-edge developments Insights from academic research are combined with hands-on experience to create books with focus on real-world teaching solutions

We hope you will find the ideas in them a source of inspiration in your own teaching and enjoyment in your professional learning

Pete Sharma & Barney Barrett

Beyond the Sentence

Peeter Mehisto, David M arsh &

M aria Jesus Frigols

Uncovering E A P

Sam M cC arter & Phil Jakes

Uncovering Grammar

Scott T hornbury

About the author

Jim Scrivener has worked in many different countries, including two years in Kenya, three in the USSR and seven in Hungary He has been Head of Teacher Training for International House Hastings, Director of Education for IH

Budapest and is currently Head of Teacher Development for Bell International, where he designed the Online Delta course He was leader of the team that

designed the Euro exams and has been actively involved with Cambridge ESOL exams including design of their online teacher portfolio He is married to Noemi and has two adult sons, Alex and Ben, and a young daughter, Maisie He can be very boring about Bob Dylan if you give him half a chance

Teachers frequently need to present new grammar to learners and grammar

presentations are often at the heart of language lessons This is part of the current general ‘communicative’ methodology, and is embodied or assumed in most current materials Coursebooks usually provide ‘ready-made’ presentations, but teachers often want to strengthen or supplement the grammatical explanations in order to meet the particular learning events in their own classrooms And when other materials like a reading text or an online activity are being used, there can be multiple situations

in which further elucidation of a grammatical structure may be required When this occurs a teacher has to decide w7hether it is appropriate to deal with this and if so howT

to insert it elegantly into ongoing work, and whether to do it now or later

This places a constant demand on teachers to identify quickly:

1) the new7 structure and its possible forms

2) the meanings imparted by the structures in context

3) the core of what the student needs to learn

4) and then, crucially, ways to present and practise the structure and to check that the core concepts are understood

Teaching English Grammar aims to help teachers meet these demands by offering

quick access to key aspects of structures, ready-to-use presentation ideas,

contexts for first and subsequent exposure to new language and insights on

checking understanding

Teachers with less experience often struggle with providing contexts for the new language they are presenting, and the activities here aim to provide simple and effective situational contexts for such language at this point in the lesson This is important, because if the situation is chosen so that the human meanings conveyed within it are compelling and transparent, then the meaning of the grammatical point can almost ‘teach itself’, reducing the need for verbal re-explanation from the teacher, and allowing the teacher to attend to the practice of the forms of the structure

At this point the teacher faces a second challenge: incisive checking of learners’ understanding of the language point T he agile selection and use of concept

questions to do this is also a crucial and often elusive skill for a new teacher to develop, the lack of which easily leads instead to a habitualised over-reliance on the misleading question ‘Do you understand?’The illustrative concept questions

in this book aim to help teachers to develop their confidence and facility in using these to check understanding

More experienced teachers will be able to use the material here to review7 and overhaul the texture and elegance of their repertoire of presentation activities and approaches, streamlining their approach and developing their confidence and effectiveness

Adrian Underhill

Series Editor

This book gathers together practical teaching ideas and key information about language in order to help you prepare and teach grammar lessons I hope that it will save you time, energy and stress and help you to feel more confident, well- informed and one step ahead of the students M odern coursebooks are generally excellent but sometimes we (and our students) feel the need to step away from their texts and exercises Rather than using coursebook material to introduce a new grammar point, you may want to do a ‘books closed’ presentation on the board - or add in an extra practice activity You will find lots of ideas here to help you present and practise grammar points

Presentation

The Presentation ideas in this book usually involve the teacher upfront,

introducing and modelling language items, possibly using the board They are particularly suitable for working with language items your class has not met or studied before Many of them involve creating a context or situation which will help to exemplify the meaning and use of the target items

Practice

The Practice ideas are based around students using the language themselves These sections list a range of possible ideas you could use to practise various features of meaning and form They are not intended as a sequence of activities

to be used in a single lesson Select the idea most relevant for your lesson and your class

It’s worth noting that this division into presentation and practice is somewhat arbitrary Many teachers prefer to introduce newr items through activities that involve lots of student language use and less teacher modelling or explanation Depending on your own teaching approach, you may find that you prefer to use ideas from the practice sections to introduce new language

All the teaching ideas are given as quite brief notes There are many steps that I

do not mention and I have to assume that you will fill in missing details yourself - and in doing so you can start to make the ideas your own and more relevant for your class For example, to avoid repetition I have not usually stated that you need to use concept questions in presentations or that it’s im portant to focus

on form - but please assume that both of these steps are usually necessary The Presentation sections mainly describe situations or contexts to help you present the meaning and use of the language However, you will invariably also need to focus on the way that the item is structured, even if that is not explicitly stated.You may find that some ideas seem unsuitable for your class as they stand - but

I hope that they can still inspire you to think of other related activities that are suitable

Some key notions in presentation and practice

Modelling

You model by saying something aloud once or a number of times because you want the class to hear a well-pronounced example of a language item You should take care to speak as naturally as possible and not artificially exaggerate any features.Drilling

You drill by modelling a sentence (perhaps to exemplify a specific grammatical

item) then getting the students to repeat - often chorally (ie as a whole class)

Alternatively, you could also ask different individuals to repeat - or pairs to say the sentence(s) to each other Drilling is a very restricted use of language to help students notice, focus on and improve things like verb endings, word order, pronunciation etc If a student repeats incorrectly during a drill it is usually helpful to correct D on’t worry too much about drilling being an unrealistic

or £non-communicative’ use of language - or that the students might be rather unnaturally over-using target items This type of controlled manipulation of language items is very useful

Story / Dialogue building

You can build a short story or dialogue that includes examples of language you want the students to learn Use the board or pictures to introduce the context and characters and then model (or elicit) lines of the story / dialogue, one by one - which the students can repeat As the story / dialogue gets longer, students can recap and practise saying the whole thing

Although teachers often worry about whether their lesson is £fun? or not,

perhaps a more im portant consideration is whether it is engaging Students will

learn little or nothing if they do not find the work interesting and involving

It needs to attract them , fill their minds and hold their attention This may be because the topic is relevant, the task is stimulating, the end result appeals to them - or for many other reasons One key factor to bear in m ind is to pitch the level of challenge appropriately - neither too high nor too low - and of course this level will vary for different people in your class and at different times

Creating the right challenge level may, for example, involve the teacher varying the difficulty of questions as they ask different people around the class

What are timelines - and how can I use them?

Timelines are a simple visual aid that you (or a student) can quickly draw on the board They make the flow of time visible - as a line moving from the left (past) through ‘now’ towards the right (the future) By adding other things to the line (eg an ‘X ’ to indicate an event or a stick baby to show when someone was born) we can clarify when something happened and this can help learners to understand the uses of a tense or how one tense is different from another

Timelines are valuable both as (a) a teaching tool to introduce the meaning and use of verb tenses and (b) as a checking tool (like concept questions) to find out how much learners have understood

Use timelines as an aid when explaining the meaning and use of a tense Ask concept questions based on the timelines Try using incomplete timelines as

a way of eliciting ideas from students ( When do you think it happened?) Invite

students to come to the board to draw their suggested timelines - and let

other students agree or disagree - and make alternative suggestions Draw

wrong timelines and invite students to correct you Timelines are a great way

of clarifying and checking meaning But just rem ember that their meaning may not be immediately transparent to everyone - and there may be different interpretations Many students seem to find timelines very helpful but others may remain puzzled

Example sentences

Where possible and appropriate, example sentences in the main text are real samples of language in use, taken from the Macmillan English Dictionary corpus M ost are exactly as listed in the corpus, but in some cases, they have been edited slightly in order to help focus on the language point being exemplified by removing or changing words that seem potentially confusing or distracting for the levels in which the lessons are likely to be taught Even so, you may find some of the samples unusual - and may consider them unsuitable

for their classes For example, the present perfect examples include Someone has just waltzed off with my drink This certainly isn’t the sort of example students typically come across - but, after just a little explanation of what a waltz is -

and of the colloquial use meaning ‘steal’ - this is actually a very striking and visual example - and the sort of chunk of language that students tend to love learning by heart (which is halfway to getting to grips with the language) Of course, if you are not personally familiar with the meaning of an idiomatic use, then it’s sensible to avoid it - but, if you do know it, I encourage you to think about using real sentences like this as they stand (even if you do need to teach the meaning of a new verb or two) - not least because some of the odder or unexpected pictures they conjure up might be more memorable

Feedback and correction

In order to get better at grammar, students need more than input and practice They also need to get lots of feedback on how well they are doing

Encouragement is important, of course, but it’s also vital to give clear, truthful information about how well they use language If a learner is constantly making

a mistake (or could say things better than they are doing), it’s little help if the teacher keeps saying only ‘Good,’ ‘Well done,’ ‘Perfect’ and so on

We can distinguish some important ways of responding to errors

1) Simply indicating that an error has been made (eg by raising your eyebrows or shaking your head) without correcting - in the hope of the learner - or a peer - being able to correct it themselves The thinking processes involved in such self / peer correction may help long-term learning

2) Indicating w7hat the mistake is - or wThere it is (eg by repeating an incorrect word with questioning intonation) without correcting (again, to encourage students to think and correct themselves)

3) Giving the correction, partly or wholly yourself (eg by saying a corrected verb form) and getting the learner to complete it or repeat it

10

There are many different ways of offering feedback or correction Here is one way that some teachers have found very useful to help students who never use contractions

Finger contractions

If your students keep saying ‘I am not working’ (ie quite deliberately and

painfully decontracting, when you really want them to speak a more fluent,

contracted form) try finger correction This technique works a treat - but it needs

to be introduced and used a few times on different occasions before its power and simplicity becomes clear

Hold up one hand, showing the num ber of fingers for the num ber of words in the student’s sentence (making sure that the resulting display of fingers isn’t rude in some way in the local context!) Indicate that one finger represents /,

one represents am, one represents not and one represents working You can do

this by pointing at one finger and saying T , then the next and saying ‘am 5, then the next and saying ‘n o t’ (and so on) From your perspective, behind the fingers, the sentence will seem to go right to left! For students sitting in front of you, it’ll read in the normal left to right order

Once you have established that each finger represents a word, slowly and

obviously push the first two fingers together and say T m ’ Repeat the action and words a few times Get the student(s) to repeat the whole sentence

In future classes, wThen students don’t contract, use the same technique again After a few times, you’ll find that students quickly realise what the fingers mean even without you needing to give any instructions This will have become a very quick and wordless way of reminding students that they need to contract the pronoun and auxiliary verb

What are concept questions - and how can I use them?

It’s easy enough to find out if students have learnt the form of a new language item - we can immediately see or hear if they say or write it wrongly But finding out

if they understand the meaning of something is much harder Traditional teacher

techniques such as asking Do you understand? are famously uninformative - because

a student might say yes for various reasons (/ don't want to look stupid or I think I understand) But there is a useful technique to check students’ understanding - one

really worth learning if you don’t know it: asking concept questions

Concept questions (CQs) are questions that you can ask students in order to check if they have understood the meaning of language items they are learning.Well-made CQs check understanding by asking questions that:

• are simpler in form and complexity of meaning than the language item they are checking

• can usually be answered without students needing to create long or complex answers

• quickly reveal misunderstandings if students have trouble answering or give incorrect answers

• help to consolidate correct understandings

• allow all students to think and check for themselves if they understand

CQs are often used as an integral part of presentations, especially when working

on verb tenses, and especially for checking if students understand what time

is referred to, but they are valuable for a number of other grammatical items However, not everything can be easily or usefully concept checked

In class, you can ask CQs to several students, listening to their answers and

evaluating whether they have understood the meaning of the language item well or not, perhaps not confirming a student answer until you have heard from a number

of them While asking individual students, you also hope that all the other students

in class are thinking through the question and preparing their own answers

A n ex a m p le

In this book, I have included some concept questions for a number of

grammatical items These are ready-to-use in class - but please make sure you are clear how the entries work Here is an example for comparatives:

• H arry’s taller than B ill Are H arry and Bill the same height? (No) One of

them is 1.56 metres tall; one is 1.59 metres tall Which one is 1.59 - H arry

or Bill? (Harry) Make a sentence about Harry and Bill using shorter (.Bill’s

shorter than Harry)

The first sentence is in bold This is an example sentence you to read out to

students The concept questions to ask students (about that example sentence) then follow, with sample correct student answers in brackets

H ow m ig h t th is e x a m p le b e u se d in class?

1) You could use these CQs after first spending some time teaching the meaning

of comparatives (from a coursebook, or using a board picture etc)

2) When you decide it is time to check if students have really understood the meaning (which could be either during the presentation or after it) say ‘Listen ’ Then read the starter sentence aloud (perhaps twice): ‘H arry’s taller than Bill.’3) T hen ask the first concept question, pause to allow all students a little thinking time, then nominate a student by name who answers the question correctly.4) Acknowledge the answer by nodding (or saying ‘thank you’) but do not

immediately say if the answer is correct or not until you have asked a few more students T hen ask the same question to one or more other students This makes sure that it is not just one clever or quick student who has ‘got it5 In fact, it is vital that to check a range of learner levels within class You need to discover if the class as a whole has ‘got it’

5) After asking a few students, you can clearly confirm if the answers were actually accurate - or else correct or explain in the case of wrong answers.6) Repeat steps 3-5 with other questions (NB some CQs include an additional

contextualising sentence, eg One of them is 1.56 metres tall.) - and maybe even

recycle some earlier questions randomly You are aiming to see if students understand well enough to answrer confidently and, perhaps, quickly

What if students give wrong answers to concept questions?

If, at any stage, one or more students give a wrong answer to a CQ, it may be best

to avoid launching straight into an explanation or correction

W hen you ask CQs you may find yourself hoping for ‘correct’ answers - but remember that the exercise is essentially about collecting feedback If there are w7rong answers, it probably wron’t help to just tell them the correct answer Wrong answers give you feedback that there is some teaching that still needs to be done

to help clarify the problems!

‘Make a sentence' challenge

The example CQs above include one additional technique - asking the students

to make a new sentence N ote that this example is more focussed than saying

‘Tell me any sentence using a comparative’ which tends to lead to random and often silly, unnatural sentences In contrast, the sentence asked for here

(a) is clearly set within the context that has already been established (b) has a specific challenge to form a sentence for which the meaning is known Little is left to chance; only a small num ber of sentences would answer the challenge

Key grammatical terminology

N oun

The name of (or way of referring to) a person, thing, place, quality, concept, etc

• Countable (or unit) noun: a noun that we can count one book, two

books, twenty sheep.

• Uncountable (or mass) noun: a noun that is thought of as a single

mass that cannot be counted rice, paper, air But we can count (a)

subdivisions or containers - even if they are not stated two grains of rice,

five bags of rice, three teas, four sugars (b) types twenty cheeses.

N oun

phrase

A number of words that act as a noun and could be substituted by

a pronoun The man I met at the cafe is going to phone me tonight The

underlined words are a noun phrase which could be substituted by he

Strictly speaking, a noun is a one-word noun phrase!

Pronoun

A word that can replace a noun or noun phrase

• Subject pronouns: I,you, he, she, it, we, they

• Object pronouns: me,you, her, him, it, us, them

• Possessive pronouns: mine,yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs

• Reflexive pronouns: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself oneself, ourselves,

yourselves, themselves

• Indefinite pronouns: somebody, anything, nobody, etc

• Demonstrative pronouns: this, that, these, those

• Question pronouns: who, which, what, whose, (whom), whoever,

whichever, whatever

• Relative pronouns: that, who, which, what, whom, whoever, whosoever,

whomever, whomsoever, whatever

Verb

Verbs describe actions, processes or states They take different forms with regard to tense (present, past), aspect (progressive, perfect), person (first, second, third), number (singular, plural) and voice (active, passive)

Types o f verb

• Main verb describes the action or state play, kick, walk, wish, think.

• Auxiliary verb the ‘helping’ verb that goes together with a main verb to help make the tense or structure am, was, have, did.

• Modal verb an auxiliary verb that adds a functional meaning to the

main verb (advice, obligation, permission, etc) vou can plavs we must

decide, vou could ask, thev should leave Modal verbs don’t have aspect and

don’t change for person

• Action verb (also called dynamic verb or active verb) describes actions

or events run, break, cook, notice.

• State verb (also called stative verb) describes an ongoing state or

condition, be, think, love State verbs are not usually used in progressive (-ing) tenses.

Key grammatical terminology

• Reflexive verb has a reflexive pronoun The subject and object of the

verb are the same I cut myself shaving.

• Multi-word verb a general term for phrasal verb, prepositional verb

and phrasal-prepositional verb It is made up of two or three words that

act as if they were a single verb get over, make do with, look after.

• Intransitive verb has a subject but no direct object ie whatever is being

done is not being done to anyone or anything She walks for half an

hour every morning (The walking happens but is not being done to

something.)

• Transitive verb has a subject and one (or more) objects.

• A direct object is the person or thing that is directly affected by the

action of the verb ie the verb is done to them He hit his boss (The action

is done to the boss.)

• In the sentence She gave me some cash the direct object is some cash - the thing immediately affected by the action of giving Me is the ‘indirect

object’ - it tells us who is receiving the direct object.

Verb phrase

A sequence of words (including the main verb, auxiliary verbs and / or

particles) that act as a verb In these sentences the underlined words are

verb phrases: Fm going to swim Next June we will have been living here for ten vears She ought to be able to guess the answer.

Confusingly, there are different definitions of the term verb phrase but this seems to be the most widely accepted one

• Base form or Bare infinitive the basic form of the verb, without

endings or to; run, go, take, cook, wash, be, break, fly Typically column 1

(of 3) in a coursebook verb table

• Present participle the -ing form of a verb running, going, taking, cooking, washing, being, breaking, flying Typically not listed in a

coursebook verb table (but easy enough to make from column l).T h e

gerund has the same form - but refers to the noun: Swimming is mv

favourite sport.

• Past form the form of a verb used in the past simple tense ran, went, cooked, washed, was / were, went, broke, flew Typically column 2 (of 3) in a

coursebook verb table

• Past participle the form of a verb used when making perfect tenses

and passives run, gone, cooked, washed, been, broken, flown Typically

column 3 (of 3) in a coursebook verb table

Key grammatical terminology

C onditional

Conditionals express what happens if something else happens Coursebooksoften focus on:

• First conditional a real-world condition that is normal, possible or

likely to be fulfilled I f I go to Kansas, I ’ll buy it for you.

• Second conditional an imagined condition that is unlikely or

impossible to be fulfilled I f I went to the moon, I ’d buy it for you.

• Third conditional a speculation about how past events might have

been different I f I had gone to Kansas, I ’d have bought it for you.

• Zero conditional statements about truths, regular situations, rules,

laws, natural phenomenon etc I f you heat ice, it melts.

Adjective

A word which describes or tells us more about a noun green, tall', bad.

• Comparative adjective compares things greener, taller, worse.

• Superlative adjective states that something is most or least greenest,

tallest, worst.

Adverb

A word which tells us more about a verb, adjective or adverb Also something

of a ‘dustbin’ class of grammar for all the awkwrard wTords we have trouble classifying Although widely taught at lower levels, they may be classified under other headings eg time expressions

• Adverb o f manner tells us howT something is done slowly, well.

• Adverb o f time tells us when something happens tomorrow, soon.

• Adverb o f frequency tells us how often something is done usually,

never.

• Adverb o f place tells us where something happens outside, upstairs.

• Sentence adverb used for modifying a whole clause or sentence,

perhaps commenting on what is said honestly, obviously.

• Adverbial a number of words that act as an adverb She walked with great difficulty (‘with sreat difficultv’ tells us how she walked).

Preposition

A word or words that help us understand the relationships between things interms of place, movement, time or ideas

• Preposition o f place above, against, across, at, behind, below, beneath,

between, by, in, next to, on, on top of, outside, over, underneath, upon

• Preposition o f movement across, along, around, between, over, past,

through, to, under

• Preposition o f time at, on, in, for, since

• Preposition showing relationship between ideas despite, except,

owing to

16

Key grammatical terminology

Collocation

Words that have a tendency to co-occur (ie be found together) For

example, many nouns, verbs and adjectives have a strong link to a specific preposition

• Noun + preposition love of, success in

• Adjective + preposition interested in, scared of

• Verb + preposition search for, argue about

Determ iner

A word that helps clarify what a noun refers to This category includes:

• Article a / an, the

• Quantifier some, all, few, each, any, no

• Demonstrative these, that

• Number seven, a hundred

• Possessive adjective I, my, your, his, her, its, our, their

Conjunction

A wrord that connects two wrords, clauses or sentences together

• Coordinating conjunction {and, but, or, so,yet, for) joins words, phrases

and clauses together

• Subordinating conjunction (because, although, if, since, as etc) is used

to open a new dependent clause and helps to show the relationship between the clauses

Conjunctions can work as part of a pair neither red nor white wine, both

Jurgen and me.

Subject and

object

• Subject the person or thing that does the action of the verb.

• Direct object the person or thing the action of a verb is done to.

• Indirect object the person or thing that receives or is affected by the

The sounds of British English

Vowels

A vowel is a voiced sound made without any closure or friction so that there is no restriction to the flowT o f air from the lungs.

/ii/as in cheese; /1/ as in hit; /u/ as in hook; /u:/ as in shoe; /e/ as in /zead; /9/ as in ago; /3:/

as in frzrd; /d:/ as in four; /ae/ as in 6ar; /a/ as in cwr; /a:/ as inform; /d/ as in hot.

A voiceless consonant is one made without the voice-box vibration Unvoiced

Strong form

W hen a word we normally pronounce with a weak form is said with its rarer full pronunciation, often for emphasis: He WAS /wdz/ there this morning.

18

1 Singular and plural

Form

a dictionary dictionaries -y -> -tes

Some common irregular plurals

Presentation

Ps:

1 Singular and plural

The farm1) Draw a simple, small farm on the board (a house, a shed, a field) Check that students know w7hat your drawing shows! Add in Federico, the farmer and a visitor, Isabella Write a year from the past (2000) at the top of the board.2) Mime to indicate that Federico is telling Isabella about his farm Add items

to the picture (a dog, a cow) and elicit sentences he’s saying (I’ve got a dog

I ’ve got a pony I ’ve got a sheep I ’ve got a goose I ’ve got a field I ’ve got a tractor

I ’ve got a child She’s got a mouse!).

3) Erase the past year and write the current year Explain that Federico has been very successful Add new items to the picture and elicit the new

sentences ( I ’ve got three dogs I ’ve got 20 ponies I ’ve got 40 sheep I ’ve got ten geese I ’ve got three fields I ’ve got two tractors I ’ve got two children They’ve got

five mice!) If you don’t want to draw 20 ponies, just write the num ber next

to the animal

4) Write up the words you have used and focus on the different ways of making plurals

5) Use separate pictures to introduce any regular or irregular plurals you wish to

focus on that don’t easily fit into the farm context (dictionary -> dictionaries; knife -> knives)

If you choose an alternative context, look for situations w7hich, like a farm, allow7 you to bring in a wide number of different plurals (/s/, /z/, /iz/) and irregulars like

foot / feet, mouse / mice, sheep / sheep.

Practice

If you are teaching at very low levels, you will need to adjust your classroom language to suit the level Many of these ideas can be introduced by gesturing rather than giving instructions

CountingBring a number of different toys, objects and pictures into the room - including more than one of many items Place the items on different students’ desks Set little tasks and ask questions around the class such as ‘Count the objects on your desk,’ ‘W hat have you got on your desk?’ ‘W hat has Pedro got on his desk?’ Add more objects and mix items around to give further practice

In my homeTell the students ‘In my home we have three bedrooms, two TVs, twelve chairs, seven clocks and two dogs Now7 tell me about some numbers in your home.’

V ariation

‘Tell me about some numbers in this school / classroom.’

20

1 Singular and plural

Quick choice quiz

A lively gam e (if you have a suitable room with sufficient floor space for

m ovem ent) is a quiz in w h ich students have to vote physically to show7 w7hich answer th ey think is correct O n four large pieces o f paper w rite the follow ing in big, clear letters:

-\eç ivregulav*

Ask all the students to come into an open space - the area at the front of class is often best Place the four signs at different places on the walls of the room around the open space The signs should not be too close to each other - but they should all be easily accessible for all students (no chairs or tables in the way)

Choose some singular nouns W hen you say a noun, every student must decide individually how the plural is made - and move to stand in front of the correct sign Students are allowed to change their minds wThen they see w7here other students are going! W hen everyone has made their final decision and stopped moving, announce the real answer - and award one point (a token) to each

student in the right place Gather everyone back in the middle again - and go on

to the next noun

Concept questions

• The w om an is in the room How many people are in the room? (One) Is

there one person in the room? (Yes)

• The w om en are in the room How many people are in the room? (We don’t know More than one) Is there one person in the room? (No - more than one) Repeat the same idea with child / children, person / people etc.

Pronunciation

Regular -s / -es

Regular plural endings can have three different pronunciations

• We use /s/ after unvoiced sounds shops /Jbps/, hats /haets/, seats /silts/

• We use /z/ after voiced sounds shoes /Ju:z/, dogs /dogz/, seas /si:z/

• We use /iz/ after the sounds /tJ7, M3/, /s/, /// and /z/ watches /wntjiz/,

boxes /boksiz/, places /pleisiz/

1 Singular and plural

Watch out for these problems

• Students avoid plurals: X / saw three student in the corridor:

• Students add an to words that are already in the plural: X womens

X peoples Of course, students will have heard words such as women's and people's and may have wrongly assumed them to be plurals rather than

they are using two

Teaching tip: memory practice

Some methodology books may give the impression that the only worthwhile classroom activities are ones which involve realistic communication between students However, while communicative practice is essential, there are some things that are probably best learnt by fairly traditional techniques involving simple input, memorisation, reminders and recall Plurals is one area where some

memory practice (helping students to know what the plural of child is) can be

helpful - alongside chances to actually use language with lots of singulars and plurals in realistic tasks, dialogues and situations

22

2 Countable and uncountable nouns Form

C ountable

We can count things that we think of as individual items, such as cars, fish, sheep, people, cans, shoes, bottles, books, toes, clouds, grains of rice, bottles of milk, plates of food.

U ncountable

We can’t count things that we think of as a single mass rather than as

individual items These include;

Some foods rice, wheat, flour, mashed potato, jam, chocolate

Liquids juice, water, wine, glue, milk, coffee

Materials / substances steel, paper, silicon, air, coal

Qualities honesty, cowardice, trust, patience, kindness

Emotions and feelings love, anger, warmth, relief

Abstract concepts information, fun, help, music, news, death, noise

Generalised activities travel, hitchhiking, work, sport, support

Some nouns can be countable (when we think of them as individual items)

or uncountable (when we think of them as a mass) These include space,

food, glass, cake, sauce, sugar, light, Coke, bread, curry, class, yoghurt, lamb, wine,

business, perfume, football, glue, cheese, deodorant, juice, paint, salad, whisky.

Sometimes, the countable and uncountable nouns have very different

meanings

paper (U) = the material; a paper (C) = a newspaper

wood (U) = the material; a wood (C) = a small area filled with trees

2 Countable and uncountable nouns

Presentation

Supermarket trip1) Draw two columns on the board and add two separate boxes at the top Write

‘a / an’ in one box and ‘some’ in the other

2) Draw7 Anna standing next to her car Explain that she is going to the supermarket

3) Say ‘She wrants to buy some rice’ - but instead of reading the word some tap

the table, ring a bell or substitute a humming noise Point at the two boxes on the board and ask students wrhat wrord they think should go in the space When

they agree, draw an icon representing rice into the some column.

4) Continue saying more sentences about Anna - each time substituting your

noise instead of the w7ord a I an or some (Anna wants to buy a newspaper She

needs to get some petrol She’s got some money in her purse In the shop she asks for

some information about special offers) 5) Ask students if they know7 why you sometimes use a I an and sometimes some

Explain briefly about countable and uncountables In English it is possible to count some nouns Others cannot be counted We think of uncountable nouns

as a mass of stuff or as a single concept that cannot be divided up into separate items / units Uncountable nouns have no plural form You always use a singular

verb with uncountable nouns (There is some snow on the upper slopes).

6) Erase the lists of items from the board Check if students can correctly recall the sentences about Anna

Practice

Countable and uncountable nouns are often introduced alongside a focus on some

and any In fact, it’s hard to introduce uncountable nouns without using these.

Other situations

In a similar way to the supermarket trip presentation above, other situations can beused to inspire sentences using specific countable / uncountable nouns - for example:24

2 Countable and uncountable nouns

S tu d en t co m in g to stu d y in U K

A student is preparing to come and study in the U K for six months What do

they need to think about (example uncountable nouns: accommodation, family, food, news)}

B o ld ex p lo rer

Tell the story of Carla the explorer who is going to the South Pole (example

uncountable nouns: luggage, clothes, ice, courage).

T ired h o u seh u sb a n d

A man at home struggles to do the housework (example uncountable nouns:

polish, washing-up liquid, air freshener, patience).

Countable or uncountable?

Write the names of about 20-30 different items on the board, including singular

and plural countable nouns as well as uncountables {hat, clock, rice, orange juice, coat, air, pop song, sunshine, father, happiness, phone) Draw two large boxes on the

board labelled 'countable5 and ‘uncountable5 Invite students to work in groups

to decide which words go into which box After some time, invite students to come up one by one and write words into boxes Other students can agree or disagree with their decisions

Can you co u n t ?

An even simpler teaching and checking activity is to ask questions to see if students can distinguish between nouns that can be counted and those which

can't Ask them cCan you count rain?5 (No) 'C an you count teeth?5 (Yes) 'C an

you count information?5 (No).

You can use simple icons to contrast some countable / uncountable things - for

example, draw two lakes and ask 'C an you count lakes?5 (Yes) 'C an you count

attem pt to find out which items they both have (I’ve got some rice I ’ve got an egg

I ’ve got some apples So have I etc).

I went to the market

If your students need a reminder, start by writing the alphabet on the board.Say 'I went to the market and I bought an apple.’ Invite a student to repeat your sentence and add a new7 purchase beginning with the next letter of the alphabet

2 Countable and uncountable nouns

(I went to the market and I bought an apple and some bread) Continue with other

students trying to remember the list so far and then correctly adding their own item As the list gets longer it will get harder and students will make more errors (which results in more laughter) Make sure you encourage students to use a mix

of both countable and uncountable nouns

Unit 9 Some and any

Concept questions

• Hiro wants to buy three books What does Hiro w7ant to buy? (Some books)

Do we know7 how7 many? (Yes, three) Can w7e count books? (Yes)

• Sara wants to buy som e rice W hat does Sara want to buy? (Some rice)

Do we know7 how much? (No, we can’t say) Can we count rice? (No)

Watch out for these problems .

• Students confuse countable I uncountable with plurals: Countability is

a separate issue from whether a word has a different plural or not For

example, sheep is the same word for singular and plural - but sheep are

countable Be careful Some uncountable nouns have an 5 ending and may

look as if they are a plural countable noun eg tennis, news, politics, chess, physics, snakes and ladders, linguistics, athletics, measles, billiards, aerobics, economics, diabetes.

• Other languages m ay count item s that are uncountable in English:

Here are some words that often cause problems: homework, information, news, money, advice, furniture, hair, knowledge, research, pasta, equipment, weather We

can count suitcases but not luggage or baggage, rooms but not accommodation, cars but not traffic.

• Students use a I an with uncountable nouns: X I saw an interesting news tonight.

• Students use a plural countable noun when they should use an uncountable noun: X You have beautiful hairs.

• Students use uncountable nouns as i f they can have plurals: X Have

you got any informations about the concert? X I forgot my homeworks X Can you give me some advices?

26

3 Containers, quantities and pieces Form

C ontainers + uncountable noun

a tankful of petrol = a tank of petrol

This emphasises that the container is completely filled

P arts or w eights + uncountable noun

3 Containers, quantities and pieces

Presentation

loo+Hebar

toot paste vvme cUeese

a box of watcUes

a botHe of cUeesepacket

cagetube

viceteatea$poov\

cav\

glass

cuke

Counting uncountable nouns

1) Make a set of word cards, each with a container or quantity (bottle, bar, packet,

case, tube, teaspoon, can, glass,piece, cup, slice, jug, cube) Make a second set of

cards of uncountable foodstuffs (toothpaste, wine, cheese, rice, tea, shampoo, ketchup, chocolate).

2) Draw7 three columns on the board Stick up the container cards on the left in

a list going down the board Stick up the food cards in the middle column to make a separate list

3) Ask the class if they can see any from the left hand list that go with an item from the middle W hen someone makes a suggestion, move the cards together

in the right-hand column Elicit the phrase a bottle of cheese and ask the class

if they think it is a good combination or not If you and the class agree that it

is wrong, replace the cards to their original lists If you agree that it is good

(a box of matches), leave them there.

4) Continue to check more combinations

5) Hand out a photocopy of similar lists Students should work in pairs to match

up as many foodstuffs with a possible container / quantity, without using any container / quantity more than once

This task might be a useful preparation for the Shopping lists activity

Practice

In my cupboardMake pairs, A and B Students start sentences for their partner to complete Asays ‘In my cupboard I ’ve got a bottle o f B has to reply with a suitable item28

3 Containers, quantities and pieces

(orange juice) B then says a new sentence with a new container or quantity ‘In my

cupboard I’ve got two kilos o f ’ and A has to complete the sentence suitably

(sugar) Partners continue to challenge each other in this w7ay.

Shopping lists

Shopping lists are always good for this language point Students can prepare

for a party, first discussing and agreeing what they w7ill need (We must get eight bottles of lemonade), then writing a shopping list, then role-playing going to the shop (Two kilos offlour, please) Perhaps it should be a small village shop to allow7

for personal service; there isn’t much conversation practice of countable and uncountable nouns in supermarkets!

Ask students to wrrite a list of ingredients for a dish they know (pizza) but leave

out the quantities They then meet up with other students and orally explain how

to make the dish, adding in quantities (Take half a kilo of flour You need ten slices of pepperoni A dd a pinch of salt).

Concept questions

• Fernando drank two glasses o f apple juice W hat did Fernando drink?

(Some apple juice) Do we know how much? (Yes, two glasses)

• Faisal ate two slices o f bread W hat did Faisal eat? (Bread) Do we know how7 much? (Yes - two slices) Did he eat the wThole loaf? (No)

Teaching tip: countable and uncountable

Students are often puzzled to hear people say things like Could I have two milks?

They have learnt that milk is uncountable and believe that this must be wTrong.

But it isn’t Like many foodstuffs, milk can be both countable and uncountable The same is true of many other nouns although food and drink are probably the most common

W hen it is countable we are usually counting the container or quantity (two

glasses of milk, or two packets of milk or two litres of milk) - but we are not actually

saying the container or quantity The container is implied rather than stated I

bought two teas means I bought two cups of tea Ordering two teas is only possible if

the listener will unambiguously understand what container is referred to

Similarly, yo u can count collections, pieces, parts, bits, quantities or weights

o f things (ten packs of paper, five bundles of wheat, two kilos of rice, three pieces of information, four news items, a few drops of whisky, a bit of good luck, a little rain, enough pasta).

Two coffees, please.

(= tw o cups o f coffee)

We need some more coffee

(= grou n d coffee beans)

I found three grey hairs

(= three separate item s)

Your hair feels so soft.

(= all the hair on yo ur head)

The potatoes need to cook for 20 minutes

(= the actual potatoes yo u w ill use)

Finish with a layer of mashed potato and grated cheese.

(= a quantity o f co oked potato)

Do you want a chocolate?

(= one single separate sweet m ade from chocolate)

Would you like apiece of chocolate? ( - the sweet brow n substance)

30

4 Subject and object pronouns

Form

Pronouns refer to nouns and noun phrases We use them to avoid repetition

The machine's broken It isn't working properly.

S u b ject p ro n o u n s

The subject of a sentence is the person or thing that does the action of a verb

I woke up at about 3 am.

You ne ed a dictionary.

H e ’s I S h e ’s a member of the team.

I t isn't working.

We lived in the room above the shop.

They offered her a job.

O b ject p ro n o u n s

D ire ct o b je cts

T he direct object of a sentence is the person or thing that the action of a verb

is done to It often comes directly after the verb

She hit me*

I heard you.

I called h im I her.

We bought it.

They saw us.

Let's ask them

In d ire c t o b je cts

T he indirect object of a sentence is a person or thing that the action of the verb is done for or given to - but not the person or thing

Bring m e the towel.

I gave y o u the book.

She bought him an M P3 player.

I showed her the rules.

We threw it a biscuit.

They sang us a new song.

Give th em a chance.

For example, Bring me a towel W hat did he bring? A towel - this is the direct

object Who did he bring it to for? M e - this is the indirect object.

4 Subject and object pronouns

Presentation

Handing objects round the room

D ir e c t objects

1) Hand something such as a pen to student A Give an instruction using a direct

object (drop it, throw it, hide it,punch it) Do a little mime to help the student

follow the instruction if they have a problem

2) Continue with other students, giving more instructions using it.

3) Continue giving other instructions with personal direct object pronouns

(push him, call them, help her).

4) After a wThile, encourage students to start giving instructions to each other

In d irect objects

In the same lesson or maybe a later one, start to add in some instructions withindirect object pronouns

1) Hand something such as a pen to student A Indicate student B and give an

instruction to student A using an indirect object (Give her the pen) Student A

must follow the instruction and hand the pen on to Student B

2) M odel a new instruction (Throw him the pen) and encourage student A to

say it to student B B then throws the pen to C

3) Slowly add in more instructions Use the verbs give / throw / show and the pronouns me / him / her I us I them W hen possible, encourage students to use

the instructions themselves without prompts

4) Extend with other instructions using new nouns for students to follow (Show her your book).

Jobs and roles

S u b ject p ro n o u n s

1) Hand flashcards showing various locations (a hospital, Moscow) to different

students Explain that the pictures show their lives

2) Use the flashcards to help elicit or model simple sentences about students

(You’re a doctor They live in Moscow) Get students to repeat sentences.

3) Go round again, but get the sentences wrong (She’s a nurse They live in

Vienna) Encourage students to correct you (No, she’s a doctor).

32

4 Subject and object pronouns

Practice

Subject pronouns

These are typically introduced very early on in a Beginner’s course when

students don’t have much other vocabulary or grammar Learning the meaning and use is often integrated into teaching other things like meeting and greeting

people {Hello Pm Anna She’s Claudia).

Reference

At higher levels, the biggest problems tend to come with recognising wiiat a

particular pronoun (especially it) refers to in a complex sentence or text To

tackle this, get students to go through a text, drawing boxes around all instances

of a pronoun (every it) - and then drawing lines back to the word or words that

the pronoun refers to

Concept questions

Subject pronouns

Write these notes on the board

a doctor a good cook a good singer

I’m a doctor (False)

• F inish these sentences: She He They You (= the teacher)

Object pronouns

Write these notes on the board

cooking a meal for Andrea’s parents

writing an email to Andrea’s grandfather

4 Subject and object pronouns

for them (True) She’s writing to his grandfather (False) She’s writing to her grandfather (True) She’s wrriting to them (False) I’m cooking a meal (False)

• F inish these sentences: She He They You (= the teacher)

Meaning and use

Backward referencePronouns generally refer backwards to things that have already been mentioned

The word him refers back to Jack We don’t need to repeat the name.

Forward referencePronouns can also (more rarely) refer forwards to things that have not yet been mentioned

He) was standing with his back to her cThe name's Tony'he whispered, without turning

round.

He refers forward to Tony, which has not been given before this point.

Pronouns are only useful if it is absolutely clear what they refer to In the following short text, the referent (ie the person or thing that is referred to) of the pronoun is not entirely clear Is it the snake, the bedcover or the arm?

The snake slid over the bedcover and curled round his arm I carefully lifted it up

Other usesApart from the standard meanings, pronouns have some other im portant uses

• T he pronoun it acts as an impersonal empty pronoun.

It's raining Isn't it a pity?

I really like it in this cafe.

It would be hard to say precisely what the it referred to in these sentences.

• We can also use the pronouns you and they to talk about unknown people or

people in general

You never see men at these conferences any more.

They knocked it down in 1998.

• We can use the pronouns they / them / their etc with a singular meaning instead

of he or she when we don’t know the sex or wTant to avoid any sexual bias

When the interviewee comes in, give them a copy of the test.

34

4 Subject and object pronouns

• We can use the pronoun one to make things sound more impersonal, to

generalise an idea or to refer to people in general This may be to avoid saying

things that might seem personally embarrassing but this use of one is a little

old-fashioned

One doesn’t like to complain.

• Using one also makes a document more formal, by removing personal

references This use is unlikely to be encountered by beginners

Watch out for these problems

• Students use a m ale pronoun for a fem ale (and vice versa): X I saw Eva and he told me Idea: Place two silhouette images on the classroom wall - a

male and a female figure W hen students use the wrong pronoun, simply point

at the wrong image, look worried and w7ait for them to correct themselves!

• Students use a pronoun when it is n ’t needed: X M r Salmon he gave it

to me X The picture it is very nice Idea: use finger correction to show the

sentence with the number of words they said - then ‘throw awray’ (ie remove the finger representing wrong word) the unnecessary word

Teaching tip: spotting the direct object

Be careful - if there are two objects, you need to take care that students identify

them correctly In the sentence She gives the man some cash the direct object is

some cash - the thing immediately affected by the action of giving Confirm this

by asking ‘W hat does she give - some cash or the man?’ This means that the man

is an indirect object as it tells us w7ho is receiving the direct object

5 Reflexive pronouns

Form

Reflexive pronouns

I cried m y se lf to sleep.

I rewired the house myself.

Make y o u rse lf comfortable!

He repaired the window himself.

M y brother does all the paperwork h im se lf

She locked h erself in

The door opens by itself

WeyU do it ourselves.

ri vtp to WIUTV WltW.

I hope the children behave them selves.

The tw in s are only three, but they can aheady dress them selves.

These refer back to the subject of the verb Reflexive pronouns can be used

when the subject and the object of a sentence are the same (I cried myself to

sleep) or to emphasise the subject (We ate all the cake ourselves).

We use each other or one another to say that each person does something to the other or others

They talk to each other on the phone every night.

After feel* lie down, concentrate, sit (down)> hurry, wash, shave, dress we do not normally use reflexive pronouns unless we want to emphasise that the action is surprising or unexpected

Our youngest boy can already dress himself.

Presentation

5 Reflexive pronouns

I did it myself!

1) Show students how7 to make a very simple origami model (a paper dart)

2) W hen all have made it, hold yours up, look proud, and say ‘I made it myself.’ Get students to hold up their models and ‘boast’ to their neighbour

3) Get everyone to hold up their models and model / drill ‘We made them

ourselves.’ Get half the class to hold up their models wrhile the other half points and says ‘They made them themselves.’

4) Get students to practise questions and responses with lively intonation Model each sentence yourself first, get students to repeat and then try saying it in pairs as question and answ7er

Did Georgi do your homework?

No I did it myself!

Did the other class arrange the chairs like this?

No We did it ourselves!

5) Get students to think of and ask new questions themselves

(move all the books) Decide wTho will do which task, aiming to use reflexive

pronouns as much as possible (We’ll put the posters up ourselves The teachers can move their stationery themselves M ary will design the floor plan by herself You can do that yourself!).

Concept questions

• Sharzia did the hom ew ork herself Who did the homework? (Sharzia) Did she do it with someone else? (No) Did she have any help? (No)

• D arina asked M iguel som e questions and then repaired the car

herself Who repaired the car? (Darina) Did Miguel repair the car? (No) Did Darina repair the car? (Yes) Did she do it with someone else? (No)

Meaning and use

We use reflexive pronouns when the subject and the object are the same

I cleaned myself up and got ready for dinner.

In this sentence I and myself are the same person.

Using a reflexive pronoun can dramatically change the meaning.

He tried to kill him describes an attempted murder.

He tried to kill himself describes an attempted suicide.

In imperatives, the subject you is understood but not said.

Phone him yourself

We can use many verbs that take an object with a reflexive pronoun

He cut himself shaving.

If wre want to emphasise that someone does something without help, wre use a reflexive pronoun at the end of a clause

I decorated the whole room myself!

We use by + reflexive pronoun to mean on your own or alone.

Since his wife died, he’s been living by himself.

We use reciprocal pronouns to say that each person did the same action to another or others

Jacques and Frida painted pictures of each other means that Jacques painted a

picture of Frida and Frida painted a picture of Jacques

Jacques and Frida painted pictures of themselves means that Jacques painted a

picture of Jacques and Frida painted a picture of Frida (or they both pointed pictures of both of them )

Watch out for these problems

• Students om it a reflexive pronoun when it is needed: X I was starting to

enjoy (myself) X The two men introduced (themselves) and shook hands.

• Students use reflexive pronouns after fe e l : X I feel myself very comfortable

at the moment X They felt themselves quite ill.

• Students use th e m s e lv e s when they m ean each o th e r : X People were

hugging and kissing themselves Idea: use concept questions to help here, ask

cWho did they kiss?’ For a funny demonstration, use mime to show the difference in meaning between hugging yourself and hugging someone else

5 Reflexive pronouns

38

6 Possessives

Form

m y work His birthday is after m ine.

y o u r dog Is that dog yours?

h er money The money is all hers.

its legs —

ou r laptop You can borrow ours.

their friends They introduced some friends of theirs.

My, your, his, her, its, our, their come before a noun phrase

my best answer

Mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs replace a noun phrase and answer the question

Whose?

your dog ^ yours

• Its (NO apostrophe) = possessive

The United States and its European allies.

• It’s (WITH apostrophe) - it + is / it + has

I t’s time to get aboard.

Presentation

People's presents

1) Place some cartoon pictures of three people on the board (Marc, Lena and Ben) Explain that it is M arc’s birthday Add a picture of a shop with some desirable items (an iPod, a camera, a book, a watch)

2) Tell a story about Lena buying an item, giving it to Marc, wTho didn’t like it (!) and w7ho later gave it secretly to Ben As you tell the story, keep pausing and interrupting yourself (as if you are forgetting the story) to ask lots of little

questions (Is it his? Is it hers now? Whose is it?).

3) Once you have got as much mileage as you can from the first item, repeat the

idea a few more times with new stories about other possessions (Lena buys a

book for Ben) Get students to ask questions like yours.

4) At the end recap all the items by taking all the item pictures off the board and asking students whose they are

Practice

Circle practice

Ask everyone to stand in one large circle (or, if your class is too large, keep them

at their desks) Give each student a flashcard or small object (a pen) Model ‘This

is my p en 5 Pass it on to Student A who looks at you and says ‘This is your pen’ and then holds up their item and adds ‘This is my phone’ They then pass on the items to Student B (not someone standing or sitting next to them) who says (to you) ‘This is your pen’, (to Student A) ‘This is your phone’ and then adds ‘This

is my dictionary’ - and so on Continue adding more items

More complex circle practice

You can fairly easily vary or extend the simple drills in the idea above to make use

of more complex sentences and possessive pronouns as well as adjectives (Is this your pen? No, it’s his Give it to him Is this your pen? Yes, it's mine Don't give it to

her;give it to me) For maximum confusion, you could also have different objects

being passed simultaneously!

V ariation

Teach a number of different verbs (pass, throw, give) and some adverbs (slowly, angrily, secretly) and get students using them to pass on the items in this manner

(passing secretly, throwing quickly)

Flashcards: famous people, possessions and relations

Find colour pictures of celebrities, pop groups or politicians who your students will know and their possessions, parents, friends Cut the pictures up so that possessions are separated from the people Students work to match pictures and

describe the relationships (This is hers That's theirs).